The present invention is directed to a furniture angle brace and more particularly to a brace used to secure two side apron members and a leg of furniture together in assembled relation.
Furniture braces of this general type are commonly used to secure side apron rails and legs together in the manufacture of piano benches, tables and other articles of furniture. An example of a prior art brace of this type has a central bracing portion, a pair of flat surface portions extending from the opposite edges of the central bracing portion for flat abutment against furniture side members, and inturned straight flanges extending perpendicularly from the flat surface portions into straight slots cut in the furniture side members. This flange and slot engagement serves to retain the brace and side members in assembled relation with the leg of the joint but it is susceptible to possible vertical misalignment as the flange will fit anywhere along the slot, it depends on screws alone to transfer a sitter's weight from side members to leg, the slot weakens the side member and may result in breaking away of the end of the side member, and the necessary tolerance in the slot can produce wobbling of the parts in the joint.
Another example of a prior art furniture brace is disclosed in Bolin U.S. Pat. No. 1,630,521, which shows a brace having a body portion with hooks that project into cylindrical holes in side rails of the furniture joint, with the hooks having converging lateral edges that bite into the walls of the holes in angular relation to the axes of the holes by tightening action on the screw connecting the brace to the leg while both side members are held in relation only when assembled with the leg, precluding a knock-down or partial assembly for convenient storage and shipping. This biting of the hooks in the side rail holes serves to retain the parts of the joint in assembled relation but is susceptible of possible angular misalignment of the side rail with the brace and possible planar misalignment by misalignment of the hooks in the holes or non-uniform biting of the edges of the hooks in the holes, without any self-aligning feature of the brace or joint preparation.
In contrast to the prior art the brace of the present invention provides and assures proper angular and planer self-alignment of the parts of the joint in which it is used, permits preassembly of side members and brace before introduction of the leg and its screw into the assembly for the inherent advantages thereof as well as allowing knocked-down shipment for later unskilled assembly of legs, has no tendency to split out lengthwise portions of the side members by chisel action of hooks lengthwise of the grain of the wood thereof, rigidifies the completed joint against possible wobbling in any direction, and is advantageous for shipment of furniture either knocked-up or knocked-down.